Tech Art Intern- Undergraduate

Insomniac Games•Burbank, CA

About The Position

Join Insomniac Games as a Technical Artist Intern and gain hands-on experience developing and optimizing shaders that help bring game environments and characters to life. The role combines technical programming skills and artistic creativity to design, develop, and improve shaders within content-creation pipelines and processes. You will work with artists and programmers to create visual effects while maintaining real-time rendering performance and efficient production workflows. The internship offers practical experience in shader development, real-time rendering, and graphics optimization, while building technical problem-solving skills and understanding how technical art supports game development. The internship is for undergraduate students pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or a related field. Candidates must have an expected graduation date between May 2026 and December 2029, be available for the full 12-week internship, and work during one of the listed periods: May 17–August 6 or June 14–September 3. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States without requiring current or future work visa sponsorship from SIE. Relocation assistance is available for eligible candidates. The internship pays a fixed hourly rate of $36.50. The stated base pay may vary in line with the hybrid working policy and individual job-related factors. Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for new employees.

Requirements

Currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or a related field.
Expected graduation between May 2026 and December 2029 from an accredited university.
Proficiency in shader programming languages such as HLSL.
Experience with real-time rendering and graphics pipelines.
Strong understanding of 3D math and algorithms related to computer graphics.
Experience optimizing shaders for performance and quality.
Familiarity with game engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine.
Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, including the ability to identify and resolve visual issues.
Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with artists and programmers.
Must be available for the entire 12-week internship period and able to work during one of the listed periods: May 17–August 6 or June 14–September 3.
Must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States and must not require work visa sponsorship from SIE now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of PBR (Physically Based Rendering) and post-processing effects.
Interest in learning about emerging game development technologies and staying informed about industry trends.

Responsibilities

Design and implement small-scale shaders that help Environment Art and Character Team content creators develop game assets.
Collaborate with artists and programmers to develop creative technical solutions that support game production.
Maintain and improve existing shaders for various applications in the game environment, focusing on visual quality and rendering performance.
Debug and fix material graphs to resolve visual and technical issues.
Document technical implementation details to support development workflows and team collaboration.
Develop sample content to test new workflows, evaluate tools, and demonstrate technical solutions.
Explore technological developments in the game industry and learn how new techniques can support shader development and real-time rendering.